Bandera Shines Bright: Books From Deep in the Heart of Texas
Last week we wrote an article about our favorite desert books on our shelves. We…
Bandera Shines Bright: Books From Deep in the Heart of Texas
Last week we wrote an article about our favorite desert books on our shelves. We would be remiss to our Texas friends and family if we overlooked our collection of Texas books. As many already know, we traded in the California desert for Bandera, Texas for a couple of years before returning to the land…
An Oasis of Books for Desert Bibliophiles
We originally referenced 100 of our favorite desert books five years ago. We still enjoy browsing museum gift shops and used book stores for nuggets of gold in the form of guidebooks, nature guides and history books. Discovering obscure out-of-print books is extra fun. Many new books have been published recently that also deserve our…
Amboy’s Historic Mural and Monument Reveal
We recently went to a historic mural and monument reveal at Roy’s Motel and Cafe on Route 66 in Amboy in honor of Amboy owner and Juan Pollo creator, Albert Okura, who passed away last year. It had everything an honorable tribute should have, live music, raffles and and delicious food, in this case, complimentary…
From Dry Guillotine to Dry Desert: René Belbenoît
How many have driven by this older building with a bright green extraterrestrial on its door, located on Old Woman Springs Road in Lucerne Valley without knowing the startling history of the former mild-mannered owner with a French accent? Do they know an author of five books sat in the corner of the store, then…
Celebrating 30 Years of California Desert Protection
Whitewater Preserve made a magnificient backdrop for celebrating 30 years of California Desert Protection with the Wildlands Conservancy on November 14, 2024. Under a canopy of autumn leaves with the caress of a gentle breeze, Sierra Club California/Nevada Desert Committee Chair, Joan Taylor, was presented the 2023 Minerva Hoyt Award before a rapt audience of…
How I Accidentally Graduated College at 68 Years Old
I never meant to wait that long. Someone recently asked me, “How long have you been working on your degree?” I responded, “Fifty years!” Laughter ensued. Yet, I had graduated high school in 1974. I took my first college course in 1988 when my first son was three months old while I was still on…
A Fond Farewell to Route 66 Mother Road Museum
Route 66 has lost another gem. On July 23, 2024, the Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, California, announced on their Facebook page they were closing. The museum’s webpage says that they are “closed indefinitely,” stating water repairs in another part of the building were being taken care of by the city. Route 66…
Cattle Drives of the I S Ranch: Mountains to Desert
Note: We gave a presentation about this subject on September 14, 2023, to the Big Bear Historical Society. This article is the culmination of a month’s long research project. We also debuted a video, which we plan to upload to our YouTube channel. Our warmest thanks goes to historians Anne Roark, Jonni Vindiola, Mark Durban,…
Salvation Mountain: Death and Redemption Near the Salton Sea
We visited Salvation Mountain for the first time with my sister, Dawn, when she recently flew in from the East Coast. We recalled watching television host Huell Howser visit there in 1997 and were intrigued. Salvation Mountain had again recently landed itself into the news media. So a mere 26 years later, we decided to…
How Bill Keys Was Freed by the Court of Last Resort
In the midst of the Roaring Twenties, a stout young man was a Ventura, California, attorney by trade. Although Erle Stanley Gardner immersed himself in juris prudence, he found that to make ends meet he needed what millennials nowadays call a “side hustle.” Writing fiction suited the gent’s keen wit, colorful oration and flair for…
